High-Cost Oncology Drugs in Brazil and Mexico: Access Differences Between the Public and Private Settings

Abstract

A879from 90.1% (1L) and 87.5% (2L) APACs could be decoded. Most used drug combinations reported for 1L-treatment were cyclophosphamide monotherapy (8.6%), cycl ophosphamide+dexamethasone+thalidomide (7.7%) and melphalane+prednisone (4.9%); for 2L-treatment, cyclophosphamide monotherapy (9.7%), bortezomibe (6.3%) cyclophosphamide+dexamethasone+thalidomide (5.2%) were the most frequent. ConClusions: The most reported drug was a monotherapy not included in the PCDT recommendations, all other frequent combinations were coherent with the current PCDT. The results found are limited by the uncertainty in data input in the database.

Challenges in the Regulation of High-Cost Treatments: An Overview From Brazil

“…In Brazil, the high cost of drugs launched in the last decade has resulted in unaffordable treatments even for the wealthier percentages of the population. 14 Owing to insufficient evidence of superiority of the new drugs in comparison with existing treatments, and given the significant impact for the health budget, SUS has not automatically included these new drugs in its lists of covered treatments. Therefore, to have access to new and expensive drugs, part of the population has appealed to the constitutional right to health, and a rapidly rising number of lawsuits has been filed by patients against the Brazilian State to demand access to high-cost drugs through SUSdthe judicializac ¸ão da sau ´de phenomenon.…”